The Filipino driver will travel from his homeland to compete in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS endurance race later this month. He will team up with Alex Gardner in the #14 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 at the round.

Canard has raced in Fanatec GT Asia this season as a competitive bronze driver in a Ferrari 296 GT3. It will his first time competing at Sydney Motorsport Park, and also the first race in an Aston Martin GT3.

The Volante Rosso Aston Martin began this season at the third round at Queensland Raceway and showed improved pace at its second outing at Phillip Island as the team developed the car.

“I’m really looking forward to coming to Australia to race in Sydney,” said Canard.

“I like endurance racing more than sprints, so this one really suits me and I can’t wait to come down.

“I’m also looking forward to meeting Alex, as well as the team owners Chris (Papadopoulos) and Josh (Hunt).

“I haven’t had a look at much of the track yet. The team is going to test before the event so I will look at all of that data and get myself familiar with it that way.

“A lot of my family is in Australia, so this gives me a chance to see them too.

“For me, this is a new team, new car and a name track. It will be a challenge, but hopefully it will be OK.”

Canard will be the third co-driver the car in as many rounds, after Ben Porter (Queensland Raceway) and Ross Polakis (Phillip Island) in planned changes.

“We’re very pleased to have Andre joining us for this endurance round,” said Volante Rosso director, Chris Papadopoulos.

“We’ve done a good amount of prep work with him over the last few months working towards this outing and his quality and experience is readily apparent, with a great attitude too. It fills us with confidence heading into this event.

“We’ve made great progress with the Aston Martin since we first turned a wheel two months ago, so of course we’re itching to get back out there and get into the competition.”

The Aston Martin will be the sole GT3 entry from team at SMP, as the team’s Mercedes AMG entry returns for the season’s sprint finale at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, in November.

The second and final round of the Fanatec GT Australia endurance championship will be held at on October 18-20 as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries’ Race Sydney.

Qualifying and the three-hour race can be watched live and free in Australia on 7plus. International viewers can watch via the GT World YouTube channel.